Summer’s end

We were woken up this morning by a phone call from my parents announcing that since it was such a lovely day they were on their way up to visit us.

My mother said not to do anything at all except get dressed, because they would be quite happy to take us as they found us.

Since this is quite obviously not true we thought we had better wash the pots as even the most accepting of parents likes to have coffee offered to them in a clean cup.

Fortunately I have had a clean up this week, so we didn’t really need to do very much except the washing up from last night and also the stack of dishes left behind from Number Two Daughter’s pre-rugby breakfast. This meal was intended to fortify her against a couple of hours of being punched in the face by rugby playing girls from Liverpool and therefore was fairly substantial.

We washed up and had even managed to organise everything ready for work tonight before they arrived, and then they thought that perhaps they wouldn’t have coffee anyway, even in a clean cup, and we would just go straight out for lunch.

We thought that this was an ace idea, and ten minutes later we were all sitting contentedly at a sunny table outside the little bistro across the road having a glass of merlot for breakfast.

My father had brought copies of the pictures from our last escapades in Blackpool with him, which we thought were splendid, you can see from the one at the top how tasteful and sophisticated we were being, we will have to put it on the wall so that we can pretend to be middle class people with real ancestors.

We had a splendid lunch of crepes, which are the foreign version of pancakes, and came with chicken inside them, not lemon juice and sugar. It was absolutely lovely, gorgeous autumn sunshine and good food. I had an especially nice time because my parents were quite prepared to listen to me expanding at length about how clever I am and also how marvellous all of the children were. This is an avenue of conversation which bores everybody else to tears, especially after I have been drinking, so it is a jolly good reason to encourage parents to drop round occasionally.

After lunch we retired back across the road to our house for some clean-cup coffee and to sit peacefully in the afternoon sunshine enjoying one another’s company, before they buzzed off back down the motorway and we had got to organise ourselves ready for earning some cash.

In the end the taxi rank was fairly quiet this evening, because it might be sunny but it is not the summer any more, and the beginnings of the winter chill are upon us.

I am on the taxi rank as I am writing this. It is warm in the taxi, but outside the night is cold and clear and still, the stars are brilliant and sharp. People getting in the taxi are shivering and pinched, because they have been out all day in the sun, and suddenly we have all been plunged into the beginnings of an overnight frost.

I am very glad I have brought the grapes in before we lost them to the cold.

I am looking forward to the winter. I love the dark nights and the quiet.

It is almost upon us.